Quote:
Originally Posted by Gromit801
And SWA will never fly to Alaska. They don't have the correct aircraft, and aren't going to be equipping their aircraft for overwater and cross international flying.
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I missed this until Jetliner pointed it out. Alaska airlines only recently started equipping a sub-fleet of 737-800s for over the water operations so they could get their ETOPS certification to fly to/from Hawaii. Any airline can fly to/from Alaska without being ETOPS rated.
As for Southwest, none of their aircraft are ETOPS rated (actually the only aircraft they fly that could be is the 737-700) however this doesn't prevent them from flying over the Gulf of Mexico. They just have to remain within a certain distance of the closest diversion airport.